Looking to make a new computer

[85Dave]

ok guys, heres the list i put togeather. Feel free to recommend any changes. I took advice from this board as well as the flight simulator X board where others have been testing setups for this flight sim game.

 

Processor:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz

 

Graphics Card:

XFX GeForce 7900 GS Video Card

 

RAM:

GeIL Ultra 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

 

PSU (Power supply):

OCZ GameXtreme 600W (or 700Wif I have any spare money in the end)

 

Hard drive:

Seagate 7200.10 320Gb

 

DVD-RW Drive:

LiteOn 16x DL

 

Case:

Silverstone TJ04 (great setup with all the USB ports up front)

 

Sound Card:

X-fi XtremeMusic

 

Mother board:

DFI Infinity 975X

 

ill be getting a 20" LCD monitor... or something close to that for this build as well.

The current harddrive in my dell is fairly good so ill just stick it into the new computer as well for more storage.

[Redbeaver]

it got my stamp of approval

 

another Temjin owner! wicked

 

 

and before anybody bash the 7900GS, its a good decent card. its cheap and itll play FlightSimX. it wont get u the high-quality settings, but itll work fine. plus he can save up some money to get a GTS later on....

 

questions:

- is the Geil DDR-800 or no?

- Samsung 205BW is my monitor. $300CAD, kinda like $250US, beautiful, great colour, slight bleeding on top, but very slick n fast. care to consider?

- whats a "fairly-good" harddrive?

[85Dave]

it got my stamp of approval

Thanks

 

questions:

- is the Geil DDR-800 or no?

 

Same one as at this link

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16820144028

 

- Samsung 205BW is my monitor. $300CAD, kinda like $250US, beautiful, great colour, slight bleeding on top, but very slick n fast. care to consider?

 

I'm interested, but its a little pricy right now. Ill end up getting it but ill have to save up some more before i do buy it.

 

- whats a "fairly-good" harddrive?

 

I don't know the specs on it or how to get them but its working for me...

it came with the Dell.

[iamkoza]

A 250 Gb sata 2 drive from WD or seagate is only $70, newegg has 160 GB drives for mid 50's (just trying to help you save a buck or 2)

 

Also, dump the sound card for now.... that is always something you can purchase later if the onboard sound is really bad to your ears.

[Thasp]

A few questions before I rattle off a parts list.

 

How much do you care about the system being quiet? For audio recording I'm guessing you do. So I would recommend the FSP600 over the OCZ GXS600, or the FSP700. Same PSU, different fan controller.

 

I'd recommend the M-Audio 7.1 model for $80 on newegg or the delta 24/96 since you mentioned studio monitors.. but this is just a 2.1 card. But it's more marketed to entry level pro recording. I can't with good mind recommend a creative card for audio recording, even though they wipe the floor with other companies as far as games and EAX effects go. You said you were going straight to studio monitors, I am guessing this means there will be no preamp. 2 channel delta 24/96 can output more, I believe it does -10 dbV and +4 dbV(or -10 and 0), where the M-Audio 7.1 model stops short somewhere below that.. so with a lower recording you may have trouble getting full volume unless you have other amps like a preamp somewhere in the chain.

 

Going with the 6400 is a good way to save money over the e6600. Unless you're aiming to go 4 GHz(which some crazy people have done on the e6400), they're really similar overclockingwise.. it's the luck of the draw whether you get an e6400 that does 3.66 GHz and an e6600 that does 3.4, or vice versa.

[85Dave]

A few questions before I rattle off a parts list.

 

How much do you care about the system being quiet? For audio recording I'm guessing you do. So I would recommend the FSP600 over the OCZ GXS600, or the FSP700. Same PSU, different fan controller.

 

Thanks, looks like ill go with the FSP600. Its a little less pricy as well which is good for me as I can start building sooner.

 

All my music instruments go into the inputs of a Yamaha MG10/2 mixer. From there they go out the record out jacks that are RCA to an adapter and that goes to the line in of my current sound card. The Green Speaker output of my sound card goes to an RCA cable that feeds a 150W amp of mine that runs the studio monitors (the monitors are unpowered).

 

 

 

 

I'd recommend the M-Audio 7.1 model for $80 on newegg or the delta 24/96 since you mentioned studio monitors.. but this is just a 2.1 card. But it's more marketed to entry level pro recording. I can't with good mind recommend a creative card for audio recording, even though they wipe the floor with other companies as far as games and EAX effects go. You said you were going straight to studio monitors, I am guessing this means there will be no preamp. 2 channel delta 24/96 can output more, I believe it does -10 dbV and +4 dbV(or -10 and 0), where the M-Audio 7.1 model stops short somewhere below that.. so with a lower recording you may have trouble getting full volume unless you have other amps like a preamp somewhere in the chain.

 

You mean this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16829121126

 

I was going to get the M-audio Delta 44 card with that plug in box that has 4 ins and 4 outs. The M-Audio 7.1 seems like its better though.

 

Going with the 6400 is a good way to save money over the e6600. Unless you're aiming to go 4 GHz(which some crazy people have done on the e6400), they're really similar overclockingwise.. it's the luck of the draw whether you get an e6400 that does 3.66 GHz and an e6600 that does 3.4, or vice versa.

 

The 6400 it is then, thanks

 

---------------

Another thing guys. I like a quiet computer...meaning minimal amount of fans.

 

This case on my list looks great and I love the 4 USBs up front but it looks to take about 2-3 fans.

 

My brother just made a computer for my older brother and its light, good looking, and only uses one huge fan making it extremely quiet...a second fan can go in there though which I probably would to keep everything kool if needed.

 

My younger brothers computer has about 6 smaller fans and has to be dusted out each month or it stops working. Hes going to get the case my other brother has to cut down on dusting as well as noise.

 

 

BTW, anyone recommend any of those water cooling systems? or are fans best?

[Thasp]

I suggest Antec fans. Not tricool, just normal fans. At any given RPM, they are quieter than the stock fan in my OCZ PSU, the evercool fans I have, and the thermaltake fans I have.. they really are amazing fans.

 

Don't forget to get rubber grommets if you want a very quiet system, to take away the resonating sound from the fan touching the case as it's running.

 

I only have experience with the consumer level 7.1 card without a breakout box, and the 24/96. The 7.1 with the breakout box seems to be of a higher quality.

 

Even with watercooling, fans will be necessary. For exhaust/intake, for the PSU, for the hard drives(unless you want to go nuts and watercool the drives). There's passive watercooling, but then there's pump noise, because you have to have a very quick pump(high flow/psi, I forget which one is important, but one of those will have to be high, thus resulting in more noise) for a passive radiator. A northbridge in a fanless system with overclocking is going to boil, and putting a waterblock on the infinity with its two hooks requires a special $45 chipset waterblock. You get the idea.. it's a pain in the butt to make a passively cooled system with a core 2 duo, but it is possible to make an almost silent system.

 

You can have a very quiet system with air cooling if you don't plan on overclocking the hell out of it. I think AM2 is better for a quiet system, and core 2 duo would be be better for a quick hot system. AM2 appears to do better in memory based applications(winrar, quickpar), but for your purposes with video/audio, intel is most certainly ahead.

[85Dave]

thanks ill stick with air cooling and those great Antec fans

 

BTW, anyone know where to get a Silverstone TJ04 case over the net?

 

im trying to get most of my order from newegg.com but they dont have it.

[Yukon Trooper]

FYI I am selling an Audigy 2 for $25 and a Logitech X-540 5.1 system for $75. The card I was using until I purchased an X-Fi and the speakers I've been only using for about a month since I decided to get the z-5300e's. The X-540's are basically the X-530's but improved. They have improved satellites, an improved down firing subwoofer, remote to turn system on/off, adjust base, turn matrix on/off. The center speaker is also designed so that it can clip onto flat panel monitors but it can also sit flat as you would expect. PM if your interested.

[HITandRUN]

Get better GPU! The Flight Simulator will kill the 7900GS on full settings!

[85Dave]

Get better GPU! The Flight Simulator will kill the 7900GS on full settings!

 

im waiting on the GeForce 8800 GTS which is about $400 around the net now. Someone said it should be great for the game and will lower in price after Vista comes out.

 

if need be, i can get the 7900 and after saving up some more money i can sell that off and swap out for the 8800 GTS

[OldGuy]

thanks ill stick with air cooling and those great Antec fans

 

BTW, anyone know where to get a Silverstone TJ04 case over the net?

 

im trying to get most of my order from newegg.com but they dont have it.

 

Try and shop local for your case if at all possible. Shipping on cases is ungodly...I know Frys carries Silverstone and you can try PcClub if they are local.

 

I wouldn't bother with ANYTHING in the 7900 series. Don't care what the mfg says (i.e. reloaded, etc, etc). 7950 as a minimum if yer looking at nVidia. Like someone already posted, save yourself some money on the soundcard unless you absolutely need it and are totally anal about SQ.